Finding injured animal on road - what do you do?

D

djlynwood

Well-Known Member
Joined
2 January 2008
Messages
762
Visit site
A previous post got me thinking about what to do do when you find an injured animal at the road side that is still alive.

Can you take them to any vet? Also, would you get charged with the cost of treatment if the owner cant be traced?

Also, if its a badger would it be unwise to try and do anything as its a wild animal. I have rang the RSPCA in the past and they didnt turn up till the next day as there were no inspectors in the area.
 
Best thing to do, i would say, is ring the police. Espcially if they are still on the road. But if it not a wild animal i would take it to the vets, dont think you would get charged for treatment.
 
I'd take a cat or dog straight to the vets.

Not sure about wild animals - I wouldn't want to try handling one unless I had some sort of box to restrain it in the car. Call RSPCA I guess.
 
A domestic animal, I would pick up and take straight to the nearest vet.

I have picked up wild rabbits before and quite a few seagulls (watch out those beaks are sharp!)

A fox, or badger, I would not know how to handle. Probably phone my vet and ask for suggestions lol!
 
We normally take it to the vets,and they dont charge.
However,just a few months ago in heavy rain,i picked up a buzzard,that couldnt fly.
We manged to get hold of secret world animal sanctary-they are local to us.....they came and checked the buzzard over,and everything was fine,including weight...we think he had been stunned by something and got wet and couldnt take off.
We fed it up over night,and kept it in a big dog cage,and took it back in the morning to were we found it and realeased it....all the advice given to us by secret world.....was a very satisfying experience!!!

Not too sure what i would do if i found a badger.....certainly wouldnt go near it!!!
 
If it was still alive I would take straight to nearest vet, no you wouldn't be expected to pay for treatment, it would be vets call whether to treat or pts I would imagine. Wildlife - you could spend forever trying to get through to the necessary organisation as I recently experienced with an injured kestrel. My opinion is that if the animal is injured it is probably in pain, therefore get it straight to nearest vet to either put out of its misery or treat.

Or call vet out to attend if it's too difficult for you to take in.
 
a wild animal/bird in pain... afraid i'd prob put it out of it's misery asap or get OH to get his gun to do it if needed
domestic animal - take it to nearest vets
 
I've never come across a large animal or cat/dog in the road but when I lived in Canada, I was walking to the shop and there was a large rat lying in the gutter squeaking away. I looked like it had been half run over by a car so it was still alive. As much as I don't like rats, I couldn't leave it to suffer, so i found a brick nearby and killed it myself.
 
I rushed a baby rabbit to the vets that had clearly been hit by a car outside my gate and was struggling to get up.

I did say I would pay for any treatment and rang at 11.00pm that night to be told the rabbit was ' rallying', given something for the shock and would be xrayed the next morning. I was also told the rehabilitation would be long and hard but it had a good chance.

The next morning they rang to say it had died in the night
frown.gif
 
Vets won't charge, have taken a fox, various cats and a foxhound before - the worst was when I hit a badger on a local lane, nothing I could have done to avoid it, and I did take it to the vet - but i would recommend caution in handling! Luckily I had one of my ols horses old canvas new zealands in the boot, so I threw it over him and rolled him in it - but it was a struggle - very heavy chap! Glad to say he was none the worse off, and they released him back after a few day's TLC - I offered to pay as I had caused the injury (that and he hadn't learned his highway code - but they were happy with a donation to a local shelter which i was more than happy to do! But yes, I would always pick any animal up - unless it was clearly going to make it worse or too injured - I did have to dispatch a pheasant that a car infront of me hit recently, and I felt dreadful.
 
Yes thats a good point vet wouldn't take money even though I offered to pay. Wouldn't want to put people off helping an animal incase they think they will have to pay.
 
If obviously beyond repair (real life e.g. squirrel with back legs totally squashed by car) I'd do the dead myself asap. Otherwise take to vet and worry about the bill later (if you could afford it/thought vet would be understanding obviously! My mum once paid for a runover dog she found as the owner was known but couldn't immediately afford it. Same vets have given us major discounts for strays.) If our vets couldn't help or I couldn't move/catch it I've found this on the RSPCA website.

"If you are involved in an accident involving an animal and are unsure what to do, call the RSPCA 24-hour cruelty and advice line: 0300 1234 999."

Then OH was very shocked when we saw a young wood pigeon be 'safely' run over by two cars and then got by moped... I asked him to stop any traffic and ran straight over to it to see if I needed to bash it on the head. (I've not had any practice pulling necks so that was my plan.) Not what he expected from a bunny-hugging veggie! Fortunately it was just in shock so I moved it into the nearby wood - might have ended up as fox, cat or dog food but had a fighting chance and our carnivores have to eat something.
 
PS - on a motorway or other major road you shouldn't really stop. Call the police or RSPCA. You getting injured too won't help anyone!
 
My mum took a pheasant to the vets once that had been hit by the car in front but she couldn't kill it and didn't want to leave it.

The vet was highly amused lol.
blush.gif
grin.gif


It died as soon as it got there so mum took it back to where she found it so it's mate wouldn't wonder where it had gone!!

It still makes me laugh to think of it now bless her
grin.gif
grin.gif
 
dog warden has picked a dog up from us once, we've also taken a dog to vet and not been charged.

Rspca came to collect a pigeon that was handed into us, but they are only 2 seconds down the road so i wouldve dropped it to them if they hadnt come for it
 
Never found one touch wood, but my Dad hit a dog a while back, he is a huge dog lover and lifted him into his car and rushed him to the vet. Dad left his name and number and said if the dogs owner didnt come forward he would have him, but happily his owner came forward and he was reunited with them.
I think i would if possible bundle it into my car and take it to the nearest vet, if it was too big or dangerous phone the vets or RSPCA for advice....hope i never have to though.
 
If you do hit a cat or dog and kill it outright then please do phone the number on the collar. Our foxhound got onto the A3 last year and my mum spent 6hrs looking for him in the woods/fields/gardens etc. She eventually found him laid out on the hard shoulder, so clearly whoever hit had had stopped but didn't phone the numbers of his collar. I was away at uni and I'll never forget her phonecall from the side of the road when she found him
frown.gif
 
We've got a Wildlife Centre close to us which is really lucky. They do emergency call outs, or I'd call them for advice and take said animal to them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top